{"id":2564814,"date":"2026-02-05T17:21:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bessent-deflects-van-hollens-attempt-to-corner-him-on-prettis-second-amendment-right\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:24:58","slug":"bessent-deflects-van-hollens-attempt-to-corner-him-on-prettis-second-amendment-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bessent-deflects-van-hollens-attempt-to-corner-him-on-prettis-second-amendment-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Bessent deflects Van Hollen&#8217;s attempt to corner him on Pretti&#8217;s Second Amendment right"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbessent-deflects-van-hollens-attempt-to-corner-him-on-prettis-second-amendment-right%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2564814&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faced a tense exchange with Sen. Chris Van Hollen during a senate Banking Committee hearing on the FSOC\u2019s Annual Report for 2025, centering on the January Minneapolis shooting of Alex Pretti and related comments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Van Hollen pressed Bessent about a remark he made the day after Pretti\u2019s death, in which Bessent suggested Pretti brought a gun to a peaceful protest and asked whether he woudl retract that statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Bessent deflected, saying the hearing was about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fed-inches-closer-to-developing-central-bank-digital-currency\/\" title=\"Fed Inches Closer to Developing Central Bank Digital Currency\">financial stability<\/a> and FSOC, not the Minneapolis shooting, and tried to steer the conversation back to the committee\u2019s core responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The questioning touched on broader themes, including the death of Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol and how public statements about individuals\u2019 culpability in shootings are perceived.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The exchange highlighted how conservatives\u2019 defense of gun rights and open-carry laws intersects with reactions to the Pretti shooting, including pushback from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/facebook-bans-second-amendment-group-without-explanation\/\" title=\"Facebook Bans Second Amendment Group Without Explanation\">gun-rights groups<\/a> and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; president Trump and some gun-rights voices expressed discomfort with pretti\u2019s carrying a gun, while others in the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >gun community urged de-escalation<\/a> and caution about impeding investigations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; the episode underscored the political sensitivity around second Amendment rights in the wake of violent incidents, even as lawmakers remained focused on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/school-board-elections-offer-referendum-on-woke-agenda\/\" title=\"School Board Elections Offer Referendum on Woke Agenda\">financial oversight<\/a> during the hearing.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Bessent deflects Van Hollen&rsquo;s attempt to corner him on Pretti&rsquo;s Second Amendment right<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2496075\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Treasury Secretary <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/scott-bessent\/\">Scott Bessent<\/a> swerved a question from Sen. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/chris-van-hollen\/\">Chris Van Hollen<\/a> (D-MD) during his Senate <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hearing\/\">hearing<\/a> on Thursday, bringing up Ashli Babbitt&rsquo;s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/january-6\/\">Jan. 6 Capitol attack<\/a> death when asked a question about the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/minneapolis\/\">Minneapolis<\/a> shooting of Alex Pretti.<\/p>\n<p>Bessent appeared before the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/senate-banking-committee\/\">Senate banking committee<\/a> on Thursday to testify on the Financial Stability Oversight Council&rsquo;s Annual Report for 2025. When Van Hollen began questioning Bessent, he first pressed him on his response to the January shooting of Pretti by multiple Border Patrol agents.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4447754\/scott-bessent-flak-democrats-affordability-senate-hearing\/\">Bessent takes flak from Democrats over affordability in Senate hearing<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4447565\/democrats-risk-house-senate-fracture-dhs-funding-patch\/\">Jeffries risks fresh fracture with Schumer over ICE funding red line<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4446999\/schumer-jeffries-condition-dhs-funding-ten-demands-ice-reform\/\">Schumer and Jeffries condition DHS funding on 10 demands for ICE reform<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4447754\/scott-bessent-flak-democrats-affordability-senate-hearing\/\">BESSENT TAKES FLAK FROM DEMOCRATS OVER AFFORDABILITY IN SENATE HEARING<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You suggested that Alex Pretti was culpable in his own killing because he had a gun in his waistband holster, which he was licensed to carry,&rdquo; Van Hollen said. &ldquo;So, Mr. Secretary, today, would you like to retract that statement?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Van Hollen&rsquo;s line of questioning was directed at a statement Bessent made the day after Pretti&rsquo;s death, in which <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/week-transcript-1-25-26-treasury-secretary-scott\/story?id=129533311\">he said<\/a>, &ldquo;I am sorry that this gentleman is dead, but he did bring a 9mm semi-automatic weapon with two cartridges to what was supposed to be a peaceful protest.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Pretti&rsquo;s legally open-carrying has become a sticking point in conservatives&rsquo; response to the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I would not. And would you like to express remorse over the death of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3415938\/ashli-babbitt-family-reaches-settlement-almost-5-million\/\">Ashli Babbitt<\/a> here in the Capitol?&rdquo; Bessent asked Van Hollen in response, referring to Babbitt&rsquo;s death by Capitol Police when trying to break into the Speaker&rsquo;s Lobby.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/calif-da-blasts-gov-newsom-for-not-stopping-release-of-convicted-killer\/\" title=\"Calif. DA blasts Gov. Newsom for not stopping release of convicted killer\">expressed remorse<\/a> over that, so I&rsquo;ve done that,&rdquo; Van Hollen said. &ldquo;I have other questions, but I actually would have expected you to take this opportunity to rephrase your response to that question. So you think the fact that he legally had a gun justified his killing?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t say that at all,&rdquo; Bessent said.<\/p>\n<p>The two went back and forth for a few moments before Van Hollen ultimately said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m asking you a question now: Do you believe he was in any way culpable for his own killing because he legally carried a gun?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is an FSOC hearing. Why don&rsquo;t we talk about financial stability and oversight?&rdquo; Bessent said.<\/p>\n<p>Van Hollen dropped the line of questioning, saying, &ldquo;Your credibility is important, and in that response, I think you let down the country because we expect honesty after that kind of terrible tragedy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Following Pretti&rsquo;s death, several members of the Trump administration followed Bessent&rsquo;s suit in raising questions over Pretti&rsquo;s decision to carry a gun while protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump also said he did not &ldquo;like&rdquo; that Pretti had a gun.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like that he had a gun. I don&rsquo;t like that he had two fully loaded magazines,&rdquo; Trump <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4436006\/trump-does-not-like-alex-pretti-carrying-gun-two-fully-loaded-magazines\/\">said<\/a>. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a lot of bad stuff, and despite that, I say that&rsquo;s a very unfortunate incident.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4434653\/trump-coalition-frays-gun-rights-minnesota-shooting-justification\/\">GUN GROUPS SPLIT WITH TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER MINNESOTA SHOOTING<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The response brought pushback from gun rights activists and the National Rifle Association because Pretti was a licensed owner.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Watching what we saw in the video, I think we all have a lot of questions,&rdquo; former NRA spokeswoman <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/4434192\/former-nra-spokeswoman-a-lot-of-questions-alex-pretti-shooting-ice-minneapolis\/\">Dana Loesch<\/a> said. &ldquo;I encourage people to carry. I encourage people to exercise their&nbsp;Second Amendment&nbsp;rights, but I also recognize that people need to be encouraged to de-escalate as well and make sure that you are not impeding any kind of federal investigation.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bessent dodges Van Hollen on Pretti gun issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3976,"featured_media":2564815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/020426_BESSENT_HEARING-55-e1770311040184.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[48057,52020,5894,32209,51466],"class_list":["post-2564814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-congressional-debate","tag-gun-rights-2","tag-politics","tag-second-amendment","tag-van-hollen"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/020426_BESSENT_HEARING-55-e1770311040184.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564814"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2564822,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564814\/revisions\/2564822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2564815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}